The SEC’s fraud charges may be the least of accused financial scammer R. Allen Stanford’s worries. Federal authorities tell ABC News that the FBI and others have been investigating whether Stanford was involved in laundering drug money for Mexico’s notorious Gulf Cartel.

[snip]

The federal investigation, however, did not stop Stanford from using corporate money to become a big man at last year’s Democratic convention in Denver.

A video posted on the firm’s web-site shows Stanford, now sought by U.S. Marshals, being hugged by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and praised by former President Bill Clinton for helping to finance a convention-related forum and party put on by the National Democratic Institute.

Can we show you video footage of said hug and praise? YES! WE! CAN!

I assume that we’re going to be hearing a lot of people pounding the table and screaming about the fact that Stanford threw money the Republicans’ way, too: but with a two-to-one ratio in general and a decidedly lopsided recent contribution history (thanks to him helping to subsidize the Democratic Convention) you can treat that as the quietly frantic attempt to change the narrative that it is. What I find truly fascinating is what this says about the DNCC’s fund-raising committee’s operating methodology. We were aware that they were in a severe financial hole last year (as I exceptionally sarcastically, if ultimately futilely, kept pointing out), so they may not have been too critical about where they were getting their money from. Still. A simple Google search gets the result of Stanford being accused in 2003 of buying foreign politicians (“Stanford speaks out on bribery allegations“) in an area where he was expanding his influence.

You think that they might have brought that up before they endorsed the check for deposit.